Teacher firing was wrong in many ways

Tuesday

Apr 30, 2013 at 12:01 AM

I have 20 years of Catholic education including a graduate degree in Catholic theology. I taught religion in a Columbus Catholic high school. I held the position of Director of Personnel for the Diocese of Columbus Schools recruiting and placing teachers in our schools.

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I have 20 years of Catholic education including a graduate degree in Catholic theology. I taught religion in a Columbus Catholic high school. I held the position of Director of Personnel for the Diocese of Columbus Schools recruiting and placing teachers in our schools. It is with that perspective that I write to express my view of the recent termination of a female teacher with 19 years of service at Bishop Watterson High School because the obituary of her mother indicated she had a female “partner”.

This decision is so wrong in so many ways. We are Christians who seek to pattern our life after Jesus Christ. The religious authorities of his time sought his advice about a woman caught in adultery, citing the law of Moses that said she should be stoned. His counsel? “Let any one of you who is without sin cast the first stone at her.” No one did and Jesus told the woman “Neither do I condemn you.” (John 8: 1-11)

In 1997 the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops issued a pastoral letter entitled “ Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children”. It states: “It is God's plan that sexual intercourse occur only within marriage between a man and a woman. Every act of intercourse must be open to the possible creation of human life. Homosexual intercourse cannot fulfill these two conditions. Therefore, the Church teaches that homogenital behavior is objectively immoral, while making the important distinction between this behavior and a homosexual orientation, which is not immoral in itself.

It is also important to recognize that neither a homosexual orientation, nor a heterosexual one, leads inevitably to sexual activity. One's total personhood is not reducible to sexual orientation or behavior. Avoid stereotyping and condemning. Do not presume that all homosexual persons are sexually active.” An obituary indicated that this teacher had a same-sex “partner”. This only suggests a homosexual orientation. There isn’t any more evidence to support the conclusion these women are sexually active than there is to conclude that married heterosexual employees are not using birth control – which is also against Church teaching. Since poll after poll shows that more than 90% of American Catholics use birth control, let’s fire them all too and see who is left to teach our children.

Another publication of the Catholic Bishops, states: “Respect for the God-given dignity of all persons means the recognition of human rights and responsibilities. The teachings of the Church make it clear that the fundamental human rights of homosexual persons must be defended and that all of us must strive to eliminate any forms of injustice, oppression, or violence against them (cf. The Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, 1986, no. 10). When Bishop Campbell directed that the Watterson Principal and Superintendant of Schools fire a Church employee with 19 years of service, on the basis of an anonymous allegation, with no discussion or due process, he committed an act of injustice, oppression and violence. This is one more example of “Do what I say not as I teach.”

Cardinal Bernard Law, formerly Archbishop of Boston, authorized the cover-up of priests he knew were sexually molesting children for over a decade. Was he fired for violating the “ morality code” of the Catholic Church? No. In 2002, before the Attorney General of Massachusetts could pursue cover-up charges, the Pope transferred him to the safety of the Vatican just hours before state troopers arrived with subpoenas seeking his grand jury testimony. This kind of hypocrisy and immorality has been a devastating scandal to the laity of our Church. The wake of departures of Catholics in Boston since then has, according to the Boston Globe, contributed to the closing of 65 parish churches there.

Our local Bishop directed, or authorized the direction to the faculty and staff of Bishop Watterson to not discuss this matter. To enforce that directive, he ordered all e-mail of the faculty and administration to be monitored. Really?! Does he think we live behind the iron curtain? Does he not realize this is the United States of America where free speech is a cherished right? Does he so distrust his faithful servants that he must issue a gag order? This kind of heavy-handed authoritarianism is exactly why the Bishops have been losing the respect and trust of the people of the Church who, I might add, pay for their high standard of living. I work in corporate America. I cannot imagine the CEO of a company getting away with this kind of heavy-handedness. His or her employees would simply flee to a more enlightened company. Many of us Catholics don’t flee because we cherish our tradition. The same tradition I have been citing in this letter – starting with the man who founded that tradition – Jesus Christ.

And to the woman who did not have the courage to sign her name to her accusatory letter, I sign off with another quote from Always Our Children: “All in all, it is essential to recall one basic truth. God loves every person as a unique individual. Sexual identity helps to define the unique persons we are, and one component of our sexual identity is sexual orientation. Thus, our total personhood is more encompassing than sexual orientation. As stated in 1 Samuel 16: 7: Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks into the heart.”